Low-rents end at Kingston's Manor house

KINGSTON — Starting Nov. 1, emergency housing services at Washington Manor will be no more, according to its president and CEO, Diane Reeder.

James Nani

KINGSTON — Starting Nov. 1, emergency housing services at Washington Manor will be no more, according to its president and CEO, Diane Reeder.

And what that means for the future of the roughly 35 tenants that use the facility is uncertain.

Washington Manor is comprised of two connected Victorian houses divided into apartments. It's located on Washington Avenue in Uptown Kingston.

Reeder said the Queen's Galley soup kitchen and food pantry, which operates in Washington Manor, will remain open.

Once a senior residence home, Washington Manor has sheltered adults at or below the poverty line for years, many who receive help from Ulster County's Department of Social Services.

The change means The Stockade Group, the three owners of the home who have been trying to sell it off, will now run the shelter, Reeder said.

Reeder said the nonprofit behind Washington Manor, Stockade Foundation, will be dissolved.

"The Stockade Group absolutely wants to sell this property and will listen to every single offer," Reeder said.

Richard Caggiano, a member of the Stockade Group, says they were forced recently to raise another $1,000 a month through rents to pay bills — bills he says on which Washington Manor was already behind.

Tenant Tom Halstead has been staying at Washington Manor for three weeks He says he's worried because he doesn't know what changes lie ahead.

"If it weren't for Diane and the Manor, I'd probably be homeless," Halstead said.

The change also means tenants will now have a traditional tenant-landlord relationship with The Stockade Group, Reeder says. But Caggiano says his group has no intention of running the boardinghouse in the long term.

"We don't know how to run a boarding home," Caggiano says.

Reeder says services Washington Manor has provided, such as connecting tenants with jobs, getting GED certificates or rehabilitation services, will be gone.